Seeing is (Barely) Believing

The ISM Report on Manufacturing showed signs the economy as a whole and manufacturing in particular are continuing to grow at a more-or-less steady pace. The Manufacturing PMI was 51.7, up slightly from last month, an indicator of slightly faster growth. Based on past experience, the PMI data also suggest that the overall U.S. economy has been growing for 37 consecutive months. The same for growth in manufacturing employment.
One would expect that survey respondents would be providing cheery comments to go with those numbers, but consistent with all the uncertainties of these times, the quotes went more like this: